The Erd?s-Lovász Tihany conjecture for quasi-line graphs

Erd?s and Lovász conjectured in 1968 that for every graph G with χ(G)>ω(G) and any two integers s,t≥2 with s+t=χ(G)+1, there is a partition (S,T) of the vertex set V(G) such that χ(G[S])≥s and χ(G[T])≥t. Except for a few cases, this conjecture is still unsolved. In this note we prove the conjecture for quasi-line graphs and for graphs with independence number 2.     

A characterization of Delsarte’s linear programming bound as a ratio bound

It is well known that the ratio bound is an upper bound on the stability number α(G) of a regular graph G. In this note it is proved that, if G is a graph whose edge is a union of classes of a symmetric association scheme, the Delsarte’s linear programming bound can alternatively be stated as the minimum of a set of ratio bounds. This result follows from a recently established relationship between a set of convex quadratic bounds on α(G) and the number ?′(G), a well known variant of the Lovász theta number, which was introduced independently by Schrijver [A. Schrijver, A comparison of the Delsarte and Lovász bounds, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 25 (1979) 425-429] and McEliece et al. [R.J. McEliece, E.R. Rodemich, H.C. Rumsey Jr, The Lovász bound and some generalizations, J. Combin. Inform. System Sci. 3 (1978) 134-152].     

A lower bound on the number of removable ears of 1-extendable graphs

Let G be a 1-extendable graph distinct from K₂ and C_2n. A classical result of Lovász and Plummer (1986) [5, Theorem 5.4.6] states that G has a removable ear. Carvalho et al. (1999) [3] proved that G has at least Δ(G) edge-disjoint removable ears, where Δ(G) denotes the maximum degree of G. In this paper, the authors improve the lower bound and prove that G has at least m(G) edge-disjoint removable ears, where m(G) denotes the minimum number of perfect matchings needed to cover all edges of G.     

Dual graph homomorphism functions

For any two graphs F and G, let hom(F,G) denote the number of homomorphisms F→G, that is, adjacency preserving maps V(F)→V(G) (graphs may have loops but no multiple edges). We characterize graph parameters f for which there exists a graph F such that f(G)=hom(F,G) for each graph G.The result may be considered as a certain dual of a characterization of graph parameters of the form hom(.,H), given by Freedman, Lovász and Schrijver [M. Freedman, L. Lovász, A. Schrijver, Reflection positivity, rank connectivity, and homomorphisms of graphs, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 20 (2007) 37-51]. The conditions amount to the multiplicativity of f and to the positive semidefiniteness of certain matrices N(f,k).     

On the maximal eccentric connectivity indices of graphs

For a connected simple graph G, the eccentricity ec(v) of a vertex v in G is the distance from v to a vertex farthest from v, and d(v) denotes the degree of a vertex v. The eccentric connectivity index of G, denoted by ξc(G), is defined as v∈V(G)d(v)ec(v). In this paper, we will determine the graphs with maximal eccentric connectivity index among the connected graphs with n vertices and m edges(n ≤ m ≤ n + 4), and propose a conjecture on the graphs with maximal eccentric connectivity index among the connected graphs with n vertices and m edges(m ≥ n + 5).     

The neighborhood complex of a random graph

For a graph G, the neighborhood complex N[G] is the simplicial complex having all subsets of vertices with a common neighbor as its faces. It is a well-known result of Lovász that if ‖N[G]‖ is k-connected, then the chromatic number of G is at least k+3.We prove that the connectivity of the neighborhood complex of a random graph is tightly concentrated, almost always between 1/2 and 2/3 of the expected clique number. We also show that the number of dimensions of nontrivial homology is almost always small, O(logd), compared to the expected dimension d of the complex itself.     

An upper bound for the competition numbers of graphs

A hole of a graph is an induced cycle of length at least 4. Kim (2005) [2] conjectured that the competition number k(G) is bounded by h(G)+1 for any graph G, where h(G) is the number of holes of G. In Lee et al. [3], it is proved that the conjecture is true for a graph whose holes are mutually edge-disjoint. In Li et al. (2009) [4], it is proved that the conjecture is true for a graph, all of whose holes are independent. In this paper, we prove that Kim’s conjecture is true for a graph G satisfying the following condition: for each hole C of G, there exists an edge which is contained only in C among all induced cycles of G.     

On a Lovász-type lemma, applied to Brooks’ theorem for list-colouring

In this paper, I present a new structural lemma for k-regular graphs, similar to an earlier lemma by Lovász (1975) [5]. The new lemma is then used to give an algebraic proof of Brooks’ theorem for list-colouring.     

The ordering of unicyclic graphs with the smallest algebraic connectivity

Fielder [M. Fielder, Algebraic connectivity of graphs, Czechoslovak Math. J. 23 (1973) 298-305] has turned out that G is connected if and only if its algebraic connectivity a(G)>0. In 1998, Fallat and Kirkland [S.M. Fallat, S. Kirkland, Extremizing algebraic connectivity subject to graph theoretic constraints, Electron. J. Linear Algebra 3 (1998) 48-74] posed a conjecture: if G is a connected graph on n vertices with girth g≥3, then a(G)≥a(C_n,g) and that equality holds if and only if G is isomorphic to C_n,g. In 2007, Guo [J.M. Guo, A conjecture on the algebraic connectivity of connected graphs with fixed girth, Discrete Math. 308 (2008) 5702-5711] gave an affirmatively answer for the conjecture. In this paper, we determine the second and the third smallest algebraic connectivity among all unicyclic graphs with vertices.     

Triangle-free strongly circular-perfect graphs

Zhu [X. Zhu, Circular-perfect graphs, J. Graph Theory 48 (2005) 186-209] introduced circular-perfect graphs as a superclass of the well-known perfect graphs and as an important χ-bound class of graphs with the smallest non-trivial χ-binding function χ(G)≤ω(G)+1. Perfect graphs have been recently characterized as those graphs without odd holes and odd antiholes as induced subgraphs [M. Chudnovsky, N. Robertson, P. Seymour, R. Thomas, The strong perfect graph theorem, Ann. Math. (in press)]; in particular, perfect graphs are closed under complementation [L. Lovász, Normal hypergraphs and the weak perfect graph conjecture, Discrete Math. 2 (1972) 253-267]. To the contrary, circular-perfect graphs are not closed under complementation and the list of forbidden subgraphs is unknown.We study strongly circular-perfect graphs: a circular-perfect graph is strongly circular-perfect if its complement is circular-perfect as well. This subclass entails perfect graphs, odd holes, and odd antiholes. As the main result, we fully characterize the triangle-free strongly circular-perfect graphs, and prove that, for this graph class, both the stable set problem and the recognition problem can be solved in polynomial time.Moreover, we address the characterization of strongly circular-perfect graphs by means of forbidden subgraphs. Results from [A. Pêcher, A. Wagler, On classes of minimal circular-imperfect graphs, Discrete Math. (in press)] suggest that formulating a corresponding conjecture for circular-perfect graphs is difficult; it is even unknown which triangle-free graphs are minimal circular-imperfect. We present the complete list of all triangle-free minimal not strongly circular-perfect graphs.     

A note on balanced bipartitions

A balanced bipartition of a graph G is a bipartition V₁ and V₂ of V(G) such that −1≤|V₁|−|V₂|≤1. Bollobás and Scott conjectured that if G is a graph with m edges and minimum degree at least 2 then G admits a balanced bipartition V₁,V₂ such that max{e(V₁),e(V₂)}≤m/3, where e(V_i) denotes the number of edges of G with both ends in V_i. In this note, we prove this conjecture for graphs with average degree at least 6 or with minimum degree at least 5. Moreover, we show that if G is a graph with m edges and n vertices, and if the maximum degree Δ(G)=o(n) or the minimum degree δ(G)→∞, then G admits a balanced bipartition V₁,V₂ such that max{e(V₁),e(V₂)}≤(1+o(1))m/4, answering a question of Bollobás and Scott in the affirmative. We also provide a sharp lower bound on max{e(V₁,V₂):V₁,V₂ is a balanced bipartition of G}, in terms of size of a maximum matching, where e(V₁,V₂) denotes the number of edges between V₁ and V₂.     

Improving the Erd?s-Ginzburg-Ziv theorem for some non-abelian groups

Let G be a group of order m. Define s(G) to be the smallest value of t such that out of any t elements in G, there are m with product 1. The Erd?s-Ginzburg-Ziv theorem gives the upper bound s(G)?2m−1, and a lower bound is given by s(G)?D(G)+m−1, where D(G) is Davenport's constant. A conjecture by Zhuang and Gao [J.J. Zhuang, W.D. Gao, Erd?s-Ginzburg-Ziv theorem for dihedral groups of large prime index, European J. Combin. 26 (2005) 1053-1059] asserts that s(G)=D(G)+m−1, and Gao [W.D. Gao, A combinatorial problem on finite abelian groups, J. Number Theory 58 (1996) 100-103] has proven this for all abelian G. In this paper we verify the conjecture for a few classes of non-abelian groups: dihedral and dicyclic groups, and all non-abelian groups of order pq for p and q prime.     

Exponentially many perfect matchings in cubic graphs

We show that every cubic bridgeless graph G has at least ²|V(G)|/3656 perfect matchings. This confirms an old conjecture of Lovász and Plummer.     

On the domination number of the generalized Petersen graphs

Graph domination numbers and algorithms for finding them have been investigated for numerous classes of graphs, usually for graphs that have some kind of tree-like structure. By contrast, we study an infinite family of regular graphs, the generalized Petersen graphs G(n). We give two procedures that between them produce both upper and lower bounds for the (ordinary) domination number of G(n), and we conjecture that our upper bound ⌈3n/5⌉ is the exact domination number. To our knowledge this is one of the first classes of regular graphs for which such a procedure has been used to estimate the domination number.     

The strong chromatic index of a class of graphs

The strong chromatic index of a graph G is the minimum integer k such that the edge set of G can be partitioned into k induced matchings. Faudree et al. [R.J. Faudree, R.H. Schelp, A. Gyárfás, Zs. Tuza, The strong chromatic index of graphs, Ars Combin. 29B (1990) 205-211] proposed an open problem: If G is bipartite and if for each edge xy∈E(G), d(x)+d(y)≤5, then sχ^′(G)≤6. Let H₀ be the graph obtained from a 5-cycle by adding a new vertex and joining it to two nonadjacent vertices of the 5-cycle. In this paper, we show that if G (not necessarily bipartite) is not isomorphic to H₀ and d(x)+d(y)≤5 for any edge xy of G then sχ^′(G)≤6. The proof of the result implies a linear time algorithm to produce a strong edge coloring using at most 6 colors for such graphs.     

On direct product cancellation of graphs

The direct product of graphs obeys a limited cancellation property. Lovász proved that if C has an odd cycle then A×C≅B×C if and only if A≅B, but cancellation can fail if C is bipartite. This note investigates the ways cancellation can fail. Given a graph A and a bipartite graph C, we classify the graphs B for which A×C≅B×C. Further, we give exact conditions on A that guarantee A×C≅B×C implies A≅B. Combined with Lovász’s result, this completely characterizes the situations in which cancellation holds or fails.     

An approximate version of the Loebl-Komlós-Sós conjecture

Loebl, Komlós, and Sós conjectured that if at least half of the vertices of a graph G have degree at least some k∈N, then every tree with at most k edges is a subgraph of G. Our main result is an approximate version of this conjecture for large enough n=|V(G)|, assumed that n=O(k).Our result implies an asymptotic bound for the Ramsey number of trees. We prove that r(Tk,Tm)?k+m+o(k+m), as k+m→∞.